Harmoniums, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Harry Partch, and the "Chromelodeon"

I was about five years old, maybe even younger, when I first played a musical instrument: an old electronic (or, more accurately, electrostatic) harmonium at my grandparents' house. At one time, harmoniums were popular household musical instruments, just as pianos continue to be today. However, harmoniums gradually lost popularity in the mid-twentieth century, particularly due to the invention of the Hammond organ.

However, since playing it that first time nearly thirty years ago I've always loved and preferred the harmonium. I was delighted when, during my time as an undergraduate music composition student, I was introduced to the music of Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877 - 1933), a composer whose contribution to the harmonium repertoire was substantial and entirely unique in the Western concert music tradition. The second movement "Interludium" from Karg-Elert's "First Sonata for Harmonium (Op. 36)" has long been a favorite of mine. It is a particularly beautiful work.

Harry Partch (1901 - 1974) was another composer whose work with the harmonium was entirely unique. Partch himself was a fascinating man.

American composer and music historian Dr. Robert Greenberg writes:

"Harry Partch was one of a kind. He rejected the entire Western musical tradition and created, in its place, an alternative musical universe for which he proselytized and composed. He created a tuning system that divided the octave into 43(!) different pitches. He created a complicated, tablature-based notational system that remains almost indecipherable to anyone but one of his disciples. He designed and built a wide variety of stringed and percussion instruments capable of playing his complex tunings." (Robert Greenberg. "Music History Monday: One of a Kind!" Robertgreenbergmusic.com. Published September 3rd, 2018, robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-one-of-a-kind-partch).

It should be noted that Partch's microtonal scale employed just intonation; an intonational system wherein intervals are tuned so purely that they do not produce beats. Partch's commitment to just intonation is one of the defining features of his oeuvre.

Notable among Partch's instruments is his "Chromelodeon," a harmonium which, like his other instruments, he rebuilt and retuned to accommodate his purely tuned microtonal compositions.

Attached is a video of the first part of a 1958 documentary about Partch entitled "Harry Partch: Music Studio." In this documentary Partch describes his philosophy of music and demonstrates the instruments he had built or redesigned to that time. The instruments are fascinating. Particularly fascinating, of course, is his demonstration of the Chromelodeon, which you can see from 3:00 - 4:06 in the video.

In conclusion, Partch writes of the reed organ in general and the Chromelodeon in particular: "The musicality, versatility, and potentialities of these old-fashioned harmoniums are constantly amazing." (Harry Partch, "Genesis of a Music." New York: Da Capo Press, 1974, 210).